The SFWA annual Nebula weekend is going on in San Jose. Yawn. Last year I attended, but that was because my mother and sister live in Northern Virginia, and the awards were held in D.C., so I double dipped. I didn't stay at the hotel, I stayed with my family.
The Science Fiction Writers of America is chock-full of snobs and elitists, and the PC in the organization is bone-crunching and barbaric. There's really no active role for someone like me. I sounded them out last year with a run for office. After the briefest of exchanges I ran away from my campaign and started the process of organizing a writers group that won't piss on you if you believe in God or America.
Last year the SFWA announced the results of the annual election at the Nebula Weekend. This year, they announced them weeks in advance. I suspect this was the result of the dissident candidacy of Ted Beale. The in-group candidate Steve Gould trounced Beale, 444 to 46, but totalitarian political systems cannot tolerate dissent and I'm sure they wanted to all be happy going into the magic weekend. I'm surprised they even counted Beale's votes, and I'm sure they will expel him in the near future.
Beale was hateful and provocative, but hey, you don't gain anything by playing nice with such a bunch of inbred self-righteous snobs.
Beale's candidacy was a Parthian volley against outgoing President John Scalzi. Scalzi's PC henchman and enforcer, Jim Hines - who lives in Michigan - decided to run for South Central Regional Director against Lee Martindale of Texas, who beat back the challenge 71-64. I used to get along pretty well with Lee, but it seems when she found out I was a Christian she turned he back on me. She won't even speak to me. No big deal, Christians are used to being treated like shit in this heathen Godless country (she is a bona-fide pagan).
BUT she still does a good job, and is representative of the membership of the group, so I voted for her and urged others to do the same. Hines learned - like Beria did after Stalin died - that people don't trust the head of the secret police. They're always afraid they will be next.
I would like to think that as times goes by the SFWA will practice tolerance, if not acceptance, of people who believe in God and Country and those old-fashioned concepts. But I doubt it. Like an exclusive trade union taken over by organized crime, it really is just a PC enforcement racket.
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At that Nebula Awards Weekend for 2013, these ace professionals held a session called "What Happens to Your Novel after You’ve Turned it In: The Difference Between Marketing and PR."
ReplyDeleteWell, let me tell you what happens to your novel after you turn it in.
• You censor your fans for mere disagreement
• You have Nebula Nominee Aliette de Bodard let people know on her blog it's an "acknowledged fact" they're too stupid to know the difference between China and Vietnam cuz they're ethnocentric racists
• You have Nebula Nominee Saladin Ahmed tell them whites are xenophobic racists
• You have Nebula Nominee N.K. Jemisin tell them they're all a bunch of racists and their favorite authors too
• You have Nebula Nominee Mary Robinette Kowal tell them she's a racist and oh by the way so are you
• You have SFWA president and Nebula Winner John Scalzi tell them they're privileged from they're own racism and immoral cuz they're men
• You have SFWA member Jim Hines admit he's a racist and you probably are too
• You have SFWA member Charles Stross forbid speculation as to a minority racial identity of the Boston Marathon bombers on his blog and then one hour later speculate they're white
• You have Nebula Nominee Charlie Jane Anders write a piece at io9 titled "What do you do when you find weird racism in old science fiction books?," fail to actually do so, and then don't tell the truth about the story in question
The only color that really matters in the U.S. is green. I'm sure I grew up poorer than any of these people. You only get used to being so hateful if you are privileged, either because you're rich or have some other claim to preferential treatment, and people are afraid to talk back to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm a first generation American; my parents fled Europe after the devastation of World War II. My father was a cabinet maker, my mother an office clerk. I've always been treated like crap by self-righteous snobs. Big deal. Welcome to being a Christian in a officially heathen country.
BUT I fail to see what this has anything to do with literature.